StuntWomanInAPencilSkirt
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08:38:17 pm on December 19, 2009 |
According to thefreedictionary.com, Spunk is an adjective that means courage or spirit. As a Hoopla Guru, I strive for what spunk stands for. As a writer, I love the sound of the word spunk. It only has one syllable and yet it has bass, attitude, and can stand on its own, outside of a sentence. (Try saying it out loud…“spunk!” See what I mean?)
For me, spunk is also a cool word because it rhymes with a lot of other words that have the potential to be spunky in their own right.Here are some of my favorites:
‘Funk’ actually means depressed…but hipsters turned this positive into a negative and redefined it to mean cutting-edge style. Now, funk is most definitely a word with spunk. (Get funky!)
‘Junk’ is garbage. But in our era of reduce reuse and recycle, junk has become associated with retro treasures. I have a friend named Jackie who takes junked furniture, infuses it with her creativity, and reinvents it as something funky and one of a kind. Her business is called Junk2Funk Furniture. Could you imagine if the business was called garbage2funk? It just wouldn’t work. Junk’s got spunk. Garbage is…well… it is garbage!
A ‘Monk’ is a man associated with obedience, and chastity. Okay, so they got spirit, but does that make monks spunky? I would argue that since the rise of pop culture monks such as Thich Nhat Hahn, Osho, and Robin Sharma (The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari), the definition of and the role that some monk’s play in our society today has changed drastically. I vote to create a special title for these modern monks, and call them spunk-monks.
‘Flunk’ is negative verb that essentially means to fail. The funny thing though, is that many great creative people have also flunked society’s tests. Painter Van Gogh was expelled from art school for not drawing like his peers. Philosopher Ayn Rand was told by many publishers that she would never see her now classic novel, The Fountainhead, in print because it was to long and academic. Singer and musician Prince was told that he would never get a recording contract because he sang in falsetto and did not fit in a category – Was he black or white…straight or gay? Clearly, it is not that rare to flunk in the process of igniting your spunk.
The last word on my list is ‘Skunk,’ a weasel that can spray a nasty odor when alarmed. I have included this mammal for one simple reason: skunks stand out. One of the most famous skunks out there is Pepe Le Pew from the Looney Tunes. Pepe is cultured, distinguished, romantic, and extremely confident … even though everyone runs away from him because he stinks! Sure, I get it – Pepe is a skunk. But you just can’t argue the following fact:
That skunk’s got spunk!
